Frequently Asked Questions

White Lotus Living sources products in a variety of ways:
Today's product labeling poses a problem. Many manufacturers currently label their products as "safe," "natural," "environmentally friendly," "eco-friendly," "hormone-free," "free range," free of some specific ingredient known to be harmful, "healthy," or some other marketing-oriented label, to entice customers to select their product as opposed to that of a competitor. These labels are all too often either meaningless, manipulative or simply untrue. For instance, the term "natural" is not defined by any governing board that regulates labels, so although it sounds convincing and appealing, it doesn't have a defined meaning (it can mean anything or nothing). Also, including the phrase, "no hormones" on meat or poultry does not make that meat or poultry better than those not labeled as such because U.S. government regulations require meat and poultry to be hormone-free. And stating that a particular ingredient (such as parabens) is not included in the product, does not guarantee that one or more other harmful chemicals are included (always review the label before you buy).

Cosmetics and personal care items: Surprisingly, the FDA does not regulate our cosmetics. Cosmetic manufacturers can include any ingredient they choose to include in our products. Many of the chemical ingredients in our cosmetics are directly linked to diseases such as breast cancer in women. The word, "fragrance" on a label may seem harmless and desirable. However, fragrances are derived with chemicals—some fragrances requiring hundreds of individual chemicals that are harmful to us.

The Cosmetics Safety Database, provided by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), provides safety ratings (from 0 to 10) for almost one quarter of all the products on the market (more than 50,000 products to date). It is the world's largest product safety guide. EWG analyzes products using the ingredient list provided by the manufacturer. For products not listed and rated in the guide, White Lotus Living submits the ingredient list to obtain the EWG rating. White Lotus Living products selected in this way carry a low EWG rating of 0 to 2 (indicating fewer harmful chemicals are included in the product). An EWG score of 10 indicates the highest level of harmful chemicals.

Other products: White Lotus Living relies on a variety of third party sources both to determine which products can contain harmful chemicals and to locate alternative products that are safer. The book, Healthy Child Healthy World by Christopher Gavigan is a primary resource, as it contains a wide range of trusted information on many products we need to replace in order to detoxify our homes and our lives.

Many of the products offered by White Lotus Living are available for shipping on the day of order or within one day. To ensure freshness, some of the manufacturers formulate their products to order, and the shipping date may extend to three or four days after order. You will be notified when your order ships, and if any product on your order is delayed. You have the ability to cancel any product which is delayed for any reason.